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2009 - Dallas Morning News – "Couple honored for giving gifts" The talk-the-talk period is over and the walk-the-walk phase has turned into a 100-yard dash for the Museum of Nature & Science. Dallas and Houston oilman and civic leader Forrest Hoglund, chairman of the Leadership Council (the official name for the committee leading the $155 million capital campaign), says he expects pledges and gifts to reach $100 million by year’s end. That figure now stands at $55 million. Once the group hits $100 million, it will be time for groundbreaking ceremonies for the facility on 4.7 acres at the northwest corner of Field Street and Woodall Rodgers, Mr. Hoglund said. Signing On Nationally acclaimed exhibit designer Ralph Applebaum Associates has been contracted to design the interior, with help from Dallas firm Good Fulton and Farrell. And just recently, 2005 Pritzker Prize laureate Thom Mayne of Morphosis of Los Angeles was signed to design the Victory Park museum. Mr. Mayne is “a world-class visionary whose unforgettably bold work will change the landscape of North Texas,” said Frank-Paul King, chairman of the museum’s board. Nicole Ginsburg Small, chief executive of the museum, is directing operations of the existing museum – which comprises the Dallas Museum of Natural History, Science Place and the Dallas Children’s Museum in Fair Park – and development of the new facility. The three existing museums will remain open after the new flagship debuts. A bundle of energy, Ms. Small talks about what the museum has accomplished in rapid-fire delivery. She says there has been international appreciation of the museum’s pioneering research about dinosaurs’ DNA. The dinosaurs and DNA project has focused on Alaska and the Arctic, and has also included expeditions in Texas, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, she said. The research is under the direction of the museum’s earth sciences curator, Dr. Anthony “Tony” Fiorillo, who has worked on fossil deposits form 1.7 billion years old to those only a few thousand years old. Dr. Fiorillo has “partnered with the National Science Foundation, the National Park Service and the University of Alaska, among others, spearheading a good part of the research as the lead partner,” Ms. Small said. Math and Science The museum’s emphasis on math and science couldn’t be more necessary, Ms. Small said, because “the education of the next generation is critical to the nation’s leadership in the world.” The museum has worked with the University of Texas at Dallas, Southern Methodist University and other colleges. And it has participated in the Science Teacher Access to Resources at Southwestern program, developed by UT Southwestern Medical Center in 1991 to improve the quality of science education in North Texas. “People have no idea what the new museum will bring to mind,” Ms. Small said. The Museum of Nature & Science “is an amazing opportunity to build a new museum from scratch, basically to get it right for long into the future, rather than renovate an older facility.” The spacious flagship will open up untold opportunities for exhibits from the four corners of the Earth. Hoglund’s Hand Mr. Hoglund was a natural to chair the capital campaign. He and his wife, Sally, have long been involved with the business and civic scene in Dallas and Houston. They continue to donate their time to causes in both cities, even though he has officially moved his business to Dallas. A few years ago, Mr. Hoglund led a capital campaign to expand the Houston Museum of Natural Science so that it could attract major exhibits that had been bypassing Houston and still bypass Dallas because of limited space. Last year, the Houston museum drew 3.2 million visitors, making it one of the premier museums in attendance in the nation. “I was disappointed about what Dallas was missing,” Mr. Hoglund said. “Dallas deserves a great natural and science museum. “It’s going to be a fabulous museum and will be expanded three or four times in the years ahead, from the initial 150,000 square feet to around 500,000 square feet ultimately.” And it will, in Mr. Hoglund’s eyes, complement the Arts District’s Dallas Center for the Performing Arts and American Airlines Center. The major donors so far are: $10 million: Hunt Petroleum, Hoglund Foundation and family, T. Boone Pickens and the Rees-Jones Foundation. $2.5 million: David, Emily and Catherine of the Corrigan family. $1 million: Nancy Hamon, Kim Hiett Jordan, Harry W. Bass Jr. Foundation and Rosewood Foundation. The museum has also received $7.2 million from a total of seven anonymous donors and $250,000 from receipts from the BodyWorlds exhibition. Donations of any size – from a few dollars to millions – are welcome. Call Anne Haskel at the museum at 972-201-0591 or email ahaskel@natureandscience.org. For more information, call the Museum of Nature & Science at 214-428-5555 or visit the website at www.natureandscience.org.  >Download Article
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